By Teresa Bouza

San Francisco, Apr 20 (EFE).- Apple and IBM have announced projects to enhance cell phones’ use as medical devices that gather and analyze data on different conditions, turning the devices into tools in the diagnostic process.

ResearchKit, a tool on Apple’s iPhones, will be available starting Tuesday for medical researchers developing apps for diagnoses or to collect and analyze health information.

Once the iPhone owner approves the apps’ activation, ResearchKit can access the user’s data on daily activities, motor functions, memory and more.

ResearchKit, in turn, is able to communicate with data follow-up software HealthKit, a tool included in the iOS operating system that allows health apps to use iPhone sensors to collect information on the user’s weight, blood pressure, glucose levels or use of asthma inhalators, among other items.

The first five apps developed under the ResearchKit umbrella monitor asthma, breast cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and Parkinson’s disease.

Apple says more than 60,000 iPhone users have authorized the collection of their data since the first apps were released in March.

The limited and open access is expected to boost the development of apps beyond these areas, making possible studies that, historically, have attracted just hundreds of participants to gather data from tens of thousands of people.

Starting this week, it will be possible to connect data shared voluntarily by iPhone users with IBM’s Watson supercomputer, which is able to process information equivalent to 1 million books per second, and which became famous in 2011 when it defeated “Jeopardy” champions.

“We want to become the analytic brain behind HealthKit and ResearchKit,” IMB vice president John Kelly told the media.

IBM announced an alliance with Apple, Johnson & Johnson and medical device giant Medtronic to create a new venture focused on health-related data.

Watson’s artificial intelligence will analyze huge health databases to provide valuable information to hospitals, doctors, insurance companies and individual patients.

Experts like Daniel Kraft, chair of Singularity University’s Department of Medicine and Neuroscience, say smartphones will increasingly be used as “medical devices,” empowering individuals to manage their own health care. EFE